WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM? NOT GETTING RESULTS? WE CAN HELP.

Kittens finally get ticket out of O'Hare

There in the grass, smack-dab in the middle of O'Hare International Airport, sat a gray-and-white cat and her four kittens.

"I almost jumped out of the bus," said Gill, a concierge at Air Canada.

When she arrived at the terminal, she did what any animal lover would do. She rounded up a posse of fellow workers, grabbed a service van and doubled back for a rescue.

Gill and her cohorts crossed the tarmac, pulled up to the curb, put on the van's flashers and tried rounding up the animals. The cats scattered.

Dejected but determined, Gill returned to the terminal and started making calls. She logged every call she made--22 in all--asking shelters, the city and airport personnel to save the cats. No one, she said, was willing to come get them.

Over the next three weeks, Gill left food out for them every day and offered a reward to anyone who caught the cats. She said two of the kittens disappeared. Although she has no proof, Gill believes they were run over by passing cars.

Worried the remaining three cats would suffer a similar fate, she borrowed a humane trap from animal control in Northbrook, where she lives. She spent a Saturday afternoon trying to catch the cats, but couldn't.

A Northbrook animal-control officer then gave her some cat-catching advice: contact What's Your Problem. She promptly fired off a heartfelt e-mail on Nov. 14, pleading for help.

"Everyone I work with thinks I'm nuts, but I'm very persistent when I want to help an animal like that," Gill said later.

So is the Problem Solver, who immediately called Anne Kent, director of Chicago's Department of Animal Care and Control. Kent said she would contact airport officials to see what could be done.

Within two days, John Antonacci, the Department of Aviation's general manager of operations, had trapped all three remaining cats and handed them over to Animal Care and Control.

Antonacci said he had heard about the cats when Gill called earlier. He did not try to catch them, he said, because Gill was feeding them, making it difficult to lure them with food.

After Kent contacted him, Antonacci said he tried a humane trap loaded with tuna, and got the two kittens. He returned the following day and was able to get the mother cat.

"As far as animals are concerned, nobody wants to see them getting hurt, so if we can catch them, we catch them," Antonacci said.

It's unclear how the cats got on airport property. Gill said she heard that a white cat had escaped after touching down with her human companion on an international flight, but airport officials said they had no reports of a missing feline.

Animal Care and Control officials said there were no tags on any of the cats, and the mother did not have a microchip for identification.

On Tuesday, Animal Care and Control veterinarians spayed, neutered and vaccinated the cats. Other employees gave the cats names--the mother was dubbed Hara, the kittens Jet and Runway.

Officials at the facility said the cats appeared to be in good health. The mother cat was domesticated, but the kittens, about 3 months old, were apparently born and raised in the wild.

Gill adopted Hara Wednesday afternoon.

"I'm almost ready to cry," Gill said before taking the cat home from Animal Care and Control.

When they got home, Hara joined Gill's other cat, Spunky, whom Gill found in a O'Hare garbage can shortly after she started working for Air Canada 18 years ago.

Gill thinks the two airport strays will get along just fine.

"She'll have a good home here," Gill said of Hara. "All my animals live a long time."

Kent said Jet and Runway need more socialization and will spend several days with a licensed foster care taker. The kittens should be offered for adoption in about a week.

Animal Care and Control, which adopts about 3,800 cats and dogs a year, is open for adoptions from noon to 7 p.m. seven days a week.

"Everything's turning out to be a happy ending, thank God," Gill said.

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THE PROBLEM

Angela Gill found a cat and her four kittens on the grounds of O'Hare International Airport but could not catch them.

THE SOLUTION

Most of the cats are now safe and sound.

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